Opening Address: Recent Discoveries from Ur / Tell Muqayyar (10:15 – 11:00)
Priests of Ur in the Old Babylonian Period: A Reappraisal in the Light
of the Discoveries at Ur / Tell Muqayyar in 2017
Dominique Charpin (Collège de France)

Keynote Session I: Origins of Near Eastern Priesthood (11:00 – 12:30)
Close to the Ruler and to the Gods: The Cultic Duties of the Cupbearer
and the Role of Priestesses and Priests in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia
Walther Sallaberger (LMU, Munich)
Babylonian Priesthood during the Third Millennium BCE: Between Sacred
and Profane
Piotr Steinkeller (Harvard University)

Biblical Priests between Text and Context (15:00 – 16:00)
“The priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no
part nor inheritance with Israel” (Deut 18:1): Is There Archaeological
Evidence of Priests and Priesthood in Iron Age Israel and Judah?
Aren Maeir (Bar Ilan University)
“Is there a Priest in the House?”: Identifying Jewish Priests
(Kohanim) in the Archaeology of Roman Judaea/Palaestina
Yonatan Adler (Ariel University)

16:00 – 16:30 Coffee Break

Keynote Session II: New Perspectives on Near Eastern Priesthood (16:30 – 18:00)
Priests in the City, Priests in the Kingdom: Discourse and Social
Change in the Babylonian Chronicles
Caroline Waerzeggers (Leiden University)
Near Eastern Priests: A Graeco-Roman perspective
Julietta Steinhauer (University College London)

Tuesday, March 20
Gilman Building, Room 496
Priesthood Identity in City-State and Empire (09:30 – 12:00)
Kings, Priests, and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Period
Shana Zaia (University of Helsinki)
In the Shadow of Oannes: Priesthood, Scholarship and Politics in
Hellenistic Babylonia
Kathryn Stevens (Durham University)

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break

The Two Wings of a Bird: Buddhism and the State in Early Medieval Japan
Mikael Adolphson (Cambridge University)
Altered by devotion (bhakti): Kings and Brahmins, Royal Courts and
Temples in Second Millennium South India
Ilanit Loewy-Schacham (Tel Aviv University)

Ethnic and Social Markers of Priesthood (15:30 – 16:30)
The Cults of Old Babylonian Susiana within its Socio-economic and
Ethno-linguistic Framework
Ran Zadok (Tel Aviv University)
Priests Associated with Hurrian Religious Beliefs and active in the
Hittite Kingdom
Stefano De Martino (University of Torino)

Wednesday, March 21
Gilman Building, Room 496
Choosing and Becoming a Priest (09:30 – 11:00)
Preconditions for the Priesthood in the Ancient Near East: A
Comparative Investigation
Jonathan Stökl (King’s College London)
The Economic, Social, and Religious Significance of Local Priests in
Hittite Anatolia
Michele Cammarosano (University of Würzburg)
“As a priest I offered to the goddess for myself”: The Hittite Kings as Priests
Amir Gilan (Tel Aviv University)

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break

Festival and Cultic Performance (11:30 – 13:00)
Priestly Colleges in North-Central Anatolia. Some Remarks on the
Tradition and Organization of Local Cults in the Second Millennium BCE
Piotr Taracha (University of Warsaw)
The Nissan Ceremony in Ezekiel in Light of the Akītu Festival
Tova Ganzel (Bar Ilan University)
The Role of the kalû-Priests in the Ancient Mesopotamian Temple Cult
Uri Gabbay (Hebrew University)

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch Break

Economy and Administration of the Cult (14:30 – 15:30)
Priests and Prebends in Old Babylonian Nippur
Wiebke Meinhold (University of Tübingen)
How to Run Your Neo-Babylonian Temple: A šatammu’s Guide
Yuval Levavi (Bar Ilan University)

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break

Concluding Session (16:00 – 17:00)
The Urukean Priesthood Between City and State Religion
Michael Jursa (University of Vienna) & Shai Gordin (Ariel University /
Tel Aviv University)
In Lieu of a Conclusion: Results and Open Questions
Michael Jursa (University of Vienna)

2 thoughts on “Conference on “Priests and Priesthood in the Near East” – TAU, March 19-21, 2018”

Your paper sounds like the most interesting of the bunch. I hope it’s received well & gets published for those of us who can’t attend. Thanks! (P.S. Saw “Samson” film Saturday, thought of you, & enjoyed it tremendously.)